This invention relates to a process for producing methanol which uses steam reforming, e.g. steam reforming natural gas, and partial oxidation, e.g. partial oxidation of coal, as sources of the methanol synthesis gas. More specifically, the present invention is an improvement to a process for producing methanol which uses both steam reforming and partial oxidation by adiabatically reforming with substantially pure oxygen the reformed gas to produce the maximum amount of hydrogen for the synthesis of methanol.
The prior art discloses methods for producing methanol using natural gas as the hydrocarbon feed and other methods using coal as the hydrocarbon feed.